For the past two weeks I haven’t been able to write my typical Wednesday post. The words haven’t been there. Or rather, they’re there but stuck.

Picture a log jam if you will. Too many logs try to pass through a narrow point of a river all at once and they end up stuck. The logs behind just keep crashing into the ones already jammed up and you get a bigger and bigger log jam. Until finally it reaches critical mass and explodes – usually violently and with disastrous results.

Hopefully this word explosion doesn’t have disastrous results!

This month has been hard so far. September means so many things to me personally:

It means the end of summer – my favourite season. 🙁

It means back to school – hip hip hooray! 🙂

It means my birthday! 43 this year, yikes! 🙂

It means all our crazy activities start up again. 🙁

It means the clock has officially run out on my “work vacation” a.k.a. no more stay at home status for me! 🙁

Welcome to Make it Monday!

It’s September!! Holy crap, where is this year going?? I am not sure to be honest. Life with kids seems to get busier each year. Which in turn means that each year flies past faster and faster. Not a fan of this!

If you check in on this blog regularly you may have noticed my “closed for cleaning” photo last Monday. I really was cleaning on Monday, but then with the rush, excitement and mayhem of Back to School I had a bit of a melt down. I’ll probably talk more about that on Wednesday (or in a subsequent Words on Wednesday post) but suffice it to say that for the first time in a long time, my Scrap Cave was not a refuge. With no motivation to make anything came nothing to post about. So … I took the week off.

My blog, my prerogative right?

But I have reached a (perhaps temporary) state of equilibrium again and have been churning projects out of my Scrap Cave with gusto. Today’s cards are part of that renewed crafty inclination. (Don’t forget to see my latest #the20project layout too.)

In fact, they were inspired by someone who purchased an item from me via Varagesale. She asked if I had any Good Luck cards and so brought my attention to a hole in my inventory.

Challenge Accepted!

To find out more about The 20 Project please visit Shimelle Laine’s blog. This is her concept that I am using as inspiration to get my own projects finished while challenging myself along the way. Shaking up the ordinary processes. Working out the cobwebs. Rediscovering old products. It is all going to happen during this project!

If this is your first visit to my blog then welcome, and if you’d like to check out all the posts in this series you can start here. At the end of that post is a link to the next one so you can keep going until you reach the end or today’s post – whichever is sooner. Enjoy! If you’re inspired to try something similar I highly encourage you to buy Shimelle’s class too. She has some pretty great prompts that I know I don’t have. And heck, she is way more interesting to watch than I am!! LOL!

Today the bowl prompted me to use a hand cut title on my layout. Gack! I love my Thickers and other letter stickers so much I hardly ever think about using something other than that. So this week’s challenge was just that – a challenge! Not one to shy away though, I got stuck in.

To find out more about The 20 Project please visit Shimelle Laine’s blog. This is her concept that I am using as inspiration to get my own projects finished while challenging myself along the way. Shaking up the ordinary processes. Working out the cobwebs. Rediscovering old products. It is all going to happen during this project!

If this is your first visit to my blog then welcome, and if you’d like to check out all the posts in this series you can start here. At the end of that post is a link to the next one so you can keep going until you reach the end or today’s post – whichever is sooner. Enjoy! If you’re inspired to try something similar I highly encourage you to buy Shimelle’s class too. She has some pretty great prompts that I know I don’t have. And heck, she is way more interesting to watch than I am!! LOL!

Today the bowl prompted me to use a clean grid on a layout. This is a look I love but rarely do as it is a bit more time consuming than my normal method of messy layers. I sort of go on and on about this in the video below but I’ll say it one more time … I LOVE this layout! The clean lines and soft colours make me so happy. Why don’t I do this more often? One of life’s mysteries!!

Welcome to a Scrapping Our Stash Blog Hop!

You may be arriving from Majken’s blog but if not don’t worry, there is a link at the end of this post that you can follow to get to the next stop on the Blog Hop. Eventually you’ll make your way back to Majken!

Today I am scrapping two things from my stash … well, specifically two things but more items found their way onto my cards! The first was several to-go style coffee cups from a piece of patterned paper from Shimelle’s True Stories line from American Crafts. I’d fussy cut them ages ago with the intent of creating cards or gift card holders but … they just sat on my desk waiting. It happens! Then I picked up her Starshine 6×6 paper pad on sale and decided it was time to get those cups onto cards!

This is going to be my last special Words on Wednesday post. This time next week the girls will be back in school and life can return to normal.

Or what passes for normal around here!

This endeavour of mine hasn’t gone according to plan (when do they ever, right) but I am pleased that I tried it. That we tried it! For this really was a joint effort – mine and my girls. I think I can safely say I’d do it again but with some changes.

Better preparation.

This was a last minute idea so quite often I was madly writing their lessons late at night or first thing in the morning. Not ideal.

Lower expectations.

Not sure why I thought the kids would be excited to learn about the proper way to clean a toilet or make a bed but …. hey, live and learn. Next time, simpler lessons for the little one, and fewer expectations of perfection all around!

More hands-on activities.

The favourite lessons were the ones where they had to look up something, find something, make something, or go somewhere. Noted!